Award Description:
To be given to the wrestler who has the most technical ability. The number
of holds and moves you see this person do and the crispness with which the
moves are executed makes his/her matches a pleasure to watch. In 1994,
this award was split into three: North American, Non-North American, and
overall. In 1998, it was recombined into one.
Previous Winners:
1991: Bret Hart
1992: Bret Hart
1993: Bret Hart
1994: (overall/NA) Bret Hart
1994: (non-NA) Chris Benoit
1995: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko
1995: (non-NA) Chris Benoit
1996: (sweep) Dean Malenko
1997: (overall/NA) Dean Malenko
1997: (non-NA) Jushin Liger
1998: Dean Malenko
1999: Chris Benoit
2000: Chris Benoit
**2001**: Chris Benoit
302 first place votes
296 second place votes
286 third place votes
149 92 14 1049 Chris Benoit
97 85 39 818 Kurt Angle
6 27 58 227 Lance Storm
6 13 41 151 William Regal
8 9 16 99 Dean Malenko
2 13 17 83 Triple H
2 6 17 62 Steve Austin
3 5 14 58 Tajiri
6 3 5 49 Minoru Tanaka
4 5 4 43 Yuji Nagata
4 4 1 34 Toshiaki Kawada
0 4 10 32 Chris Jericho
0 4 8 28 Jerry Lynn
3 4 0 27 Blue Panther
2 1 4 21 Doug Williams
0 4 4 20 Rob van Dam
1 2 4 19 Kanyon
0 4 3 18 American Dragon
2 0 0 10 Mariko Yoshida
1 1 1 10 Keiji Muto
0 2 2 10 Tazz
1 1 0 8 Super Dragon
1 0 1 7 Lexie Fyfe
0 0 3 6 Kendo Ka Shin
0 0 3 6 Eddie Guerrero
1 0 0 5 X-Pac
1 0 0 5 Mr. Gannosuke
1 0 0 5 Mitsuya Nagai
1 0 0 5 James Mason
0 1 1 5 Osamu Nishimura
0 1 1 5 Christian
0 0 2 4 Jeff Jarrett
0 1 0 3 Mike Enos
0 1 0 3 Masahito Kakihara
0 1 0 3 Jushin Liger
0 1 0 3 Hiromi Yagi
0 1 0 3 El Hijo del Santo
0 0 1 2 Undertaker
0 0 1 2 Tony Kozina
0 0 1 2 Test
0 0 1 2 Takehiro Murahama
0 0 1 2 Takashi Iizuka
0 0 1 2 Shinjiro Ohtani
0 0 1 2 Matt Hardy
0 0 1 2 Jungle Grrrl
0 0 1 2 Ivory
0 0 1 2 Hisakatsu Oya
0 0 1 2 Carlos Amano
0 0 1 2 Carl Malenko
0 0 1 2 Caliente
RYAN HALL: Angle, Benoit, Austin. Angle is an Olympic gold medallist for
chris'sakes
EDDIE BURKETT: Benoit continued to impress until his injury. Angle and
Austin still impress every time they go out there. They may not be
technical each and every time they put on the tights, but they bust it out
sometimes, and its great when they do.
HIRO: If not for Chris Benoit's injury and the fact that Dean Malenko is
semi-retired, they would've wrapped this category.
VIKRAM BIRRING: The "Man of 1000 holds" is the best technical wrestler of
this generation. Too bad nobody noticed.
DEAN RASMUSSEN: Doug Williams is all Snakepit and carney and Britastically
fabulous on the mat. He's my favorite new guy to make the tapes this year.
I'm glad he's working more in the States and that British tapes are
starting to become more accessible because he rules.
CHIP BOOTS: Kurt has really stepped up his technical game in Benoit's
absence.
MARKUS: Duh, part deux.
SCOTT WORDEN: Angle rules the mat.. Oh it's true, it's true..
CANZ: Blue Panther can still tie anyone in knots. There is no move this
man can't turn into some crazy lucha submission.
SHOCKER 2K: Benoit is a virtual lock for this spot.
DONNY L: Benoit & Angle has such great technique, Lance Storm finishes
third
JOHN C.: After their classic match on Smackdown in May, Steve Austin said
this about Chris Benoit: "He's the only person I would trust to give me
that many (ten) German suplexes in a match." This is coming from a man
with a surgically repaired neck. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if
the best wrestler of the year had that to say about Benoit then there's no
denying the Crippler is the best technical wrestler. Kurt Angle comes in
second with Lance Storm, the forgotten one, coming in third.
JOE GENTILE: I want to know how in the hell the internet smarks are going
to justify giving this award to Benoit when Angle not only was BETTER
technically, but wrestled a full year to Benoit's six months???
BLAZEJ SZPAKOWICZ: Benoit, of course. He is truly a god of technical
wrestling. Just poetry in motion. Him referring to himself as the best
technical wrestler in the world today is *still* a shoot. Angle gets
second, and all of the above applies to him as well. Shame he decided to
appropriate Benoit's chained German Suplexes, though (more to the point,
shame the announcers never acknowledged it!). And if anyone doesn't get
why these guys are one and two, just go and watch their match from
Wrestlemania. Thank you, I knew you'd see things my way. William Regal
gets third.
YNAE316: It should be no surprise Chris and Lance rank high. I've always
been impressed with Jerry's work and think it's a crying shame how the WWF
just BURIED him after the initialthree week push.
SHANE SPEAR: Now that the actual number of pinfall is thrown out the
window, I can safely votes for the other side of my feud here with Chris
Benoit. Again, it was just a margin of a decision as Kurt Angle could, by
all means, have shared the spot which is why he obviously takes second. I
used my third place spot on Deano, as I may never get to vote for him
again, and the fact that when he DID wrestle this year, it was a beatuiful
thing.
RYAN FAULCONER: Momoe has mad hops.